TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 
ment, and are continually on the look-out for opportunities to settle elsewhere. 
Agents were employed to let these people know that if they would come and settle 
within the Turkish territory they would receive grants of land and assistance to 
build their houses, with the enjoyment of full civil and religious liberty. The 
consequence was, that every year an average of about 5000 individuals of this 
character cross the frontier. The Russians are also driving out the warlike Cir- 
cassians, who, under Schamyl, so long resisted their forces, and along with them a 
large number of entirely peaceful Circassians, by the vexatious and arbitrary arrange- 
ments to which they are exposed. These people all seek a refuge in Turkey, and are 
located in the Mount Ararat district. Besides these the lands are further colonized 
by Kurdish tribes, driven out of their own country by the anarchial state of Persia. 
These people, who are herdsmen, and prefer a pastoral life, find a new home in 
these rich pastures. All these men of different races are not only nobles and 
peasants, they are soldiers, all animated by a common spirit in favour of an 
Asiatic nationality—a spirit which has been aroused by the sense of a common 
danger, and which supplies a common bond of union. The ruling family of the 
incipient nationality was generally known as that of the Trebizondes, from the cir- 
cumstance that its founder was appointed Governor of Trebizond in the time of Mo- 
hammed the Second. Speculating upon the prospects of this new people, the 
author said they might remain united with the Ottoman Empire, and become an 
effectual barrier to the further encroachments of Russia, or they might form an 
independent nationality, and, as our allies and friends, help to develope the great 
means of communication between Europe and India by the valley of the Euphrates 
and Tigris, of which they hold the key. 
Description of Hong Kong. By Granvitre Swarr. 
On the Uigurs. By Prof. A. VAupéry. 
The Uigurs are the most ancient of the Turkish tribes, and formerly inhabited a 
yet of Chinese Tartary, which is now occupied by a mixed population of Turks, 
ongols, and Kalmucks. They were the first who reduced the Turkish language 
to writing, borrowing the characters from the Nestorian Christians, who came to 
their country as early as the fourth century of our era. The manuscripts of this 
language, written in the characters mentioned, afford, therefore, the most ancient 
and valuable data in investigating the history of Central Asia—nay of the whole 
Turkish race. But these monuments are of great scarcity ; the author believed he 
had collected all that had been discovered of the Uigur language. It was an inte- 
resting fact that the Uigurs had a literature, and were very fond of books, at a 
time when our western world was involved in ignorance and barbarism. The 
most valuable manuscript the author had obtained bore the date of 1069, and was 
written in Kashgar; it treats of ethics and political subjects, and forms a kind of 
manual of advice to kings how to govern with justice and success. It reveals to 
us the social condition of this interesting people, and forms, so to say, the basis of 
the later regulations by which all Turks are governed. The author, having com- 
pleted last year his ‘Philological Researches in the Turkish of Central Asia,’ 
was now about to publish a treatise on ‘ Uigur Linguistic Monuments,’ which 
would contain more of the remains of Uigur literature than had hitherto been made 
known. He intended also to show that the Tartars of ancient times were. not 
such barbarians as they now are, and that their civilization was earlier than that 
of the West. 
Overland Route through British North Americt. By A. Wavprxeron. 
The author had devoted several years in British Columbia to the exploration by 
himself and his agents of the various routes through the Cascade and Rocky 
Mountain ranges, with a view to discovering the best line for an overland route 
extending from Canada to the coast of the Pacific, The author believed that he 
